- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- In St John’s in the Vale
- Date
- 1786/08/17
- Medium
- Pen and ink, watercolour, scratching out
- Dimensions
-
- image width 156mm,
- image length 235mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “No30 Cumberland. In the Vale of St. John by the side of the lake of Wyburn. Light from the right hand ½ past 10 o’clock August 17 1786.F.Towne”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT486
- Description Sources
- Agnew's records (image)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), on whose death it passed to Towne’s residuary legatee John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) and his successors. Merivale’s granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 and it is thereafter untraced until the early 1970s, when it was acquired by Agnew’s from Newhouse(?) on 21 April 1971 (no.0594). Agnew’s sold it on 2 January 1973.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced, 2 January 1973
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 21 April 1971, no.0594
- [?] Newhouse
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- 100th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1973, no. 16
- Bibliography
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 121
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 119
Other entries in Lake District, 1786
Francis Towne
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
Francis Towne
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
Francis Towne
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
Francis Towne
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
Francis Towne
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
Francis Towne
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
Francis Towne
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
Francis Towne
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
Francis Towne
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
Francis Towne
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
Francis Towne
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
Francis Towne
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
Francis Towne
Elter Force, near Ambleside
Elter Force, near Ambleside
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
Footnotes
- 1 The author’s identification is based on a visit in March 2006. At the same time, however, the curator at Dove Cottage suggested that this view shows Helvellyn from a small track on the west shore of the lake.
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Comment
This is a view of Thirlmere (also known as Wythburn) on the road from Ambleside to Keswick. St John’s in the Vale, to which Towne’s inscription refers, is an area south-east of Keswick and north of Thirlmere, where on 17 August Towne made seven drawings that are numbered between 30 and 36 (FT486, FT487, FT488, FT489, FT490, FT491, FT492). The present work, however, is south of St John’s in the Vale. The rock on the far edge of the lake is halfway up the lake, just south of the lower (larger) of two islands, and known as Hause Point.1
Paul Oppé saw this drawing in ca. 1915, by which time it had come apart from the rump of the 1786 sketchbook.